Lynette Rivers pressed trembling fingers to her throbbing collarbone, the hexagonal wolf tattoo burning like liquid nitrogen. School nurses blamed "PTSD episodes," but no prescription could explain why her sweat crystallized into frost every midnight – or why she kept dreaming of a lupine prince with mercury-gold eyes tearing out her throat.
The maple trees outside the infirmary window rustled ominously.
A silhouette moved in the shadows.
She recognized the new transfer student even through his hoodie – Caelum Voss, whose silver pendant bore the same snarling wolf sigil from her nightmares. Rumor claimed he'd transferred from a Swiss boarding school shut down after "cult-related incidents."
"Still playing the victim, Spiritborn?" Three figures blocked the exit, led by Amberleigh Pratt who'd locked her in the morgue freezer last week. "What's this? A werewolf tramp stamp?"
Lynette's palm met Amberleigh's wrist.
Blue electricity arced between them. The bully's pupils dilated into black voids as she chanted in Old Norse: "Hús hinna fornu...undir klukkan...tólf steinar..."
When the seizure ended, Lynette stared at her shimmering cobalt-stained fingers. Amberleigh's arm now bore an identical wolf mark.
Ancient Timeline - Memory Shard
Blood moon painted the execution platform.
A silver-haired prince strained against adamantine chains, his right eye human hazel, left eye fully wolven.
"Drink the Spiritborn's heart," crooned the witch Isolde, pressing a dagger to his childhood sweetheart's throat. "Or watch her soul fuel my son's ascension."
Prince Caelum roared, snapping chains to grab Isolde's throat – only to freeze as his beloved Elspeth impaled herself on his claws.
"When frost blooms on your ears," she gasped, "find me beyond the veil..."